Category: Pocitelj

Today we get to the final destination of this trip: The Peljesac peninsula. And we are here for a wedding. On the way we stopped to look at famous Počitelj in Bosnia and Herzegovina and at the War Monument on the peninsula

15 years after the war ended one still finds evidence of it everywhere. Took this picture in Mostar at a red light.

Počitelj

Built in a natural amphitheatre along the Neretva river in Bosnia and Herzegovina Počitelj evolved from the 16th to the 18th centuries. You can see the two stages of evolution: medieval and Ottoman. In its early days the town housed a Hungarian garrison and was fortified into a strategic defence stronghold. In 1471 it was conquered by the Ottomans and lost it strategic importance. More than 200 years later after the Venetians conquered and destroyed Gabela the town became again an important strategic stronghold. In 1878 Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina was established. From that day on the town started deteriorating rapidly since it was not important again.

Wikipedia has this to offer from a not to far past: The entire historic urban site of Počitelj and surrounding area suffered extensive collateral damage during the 1992-1996 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Namely, it was heavily damaged by Croatian forces during the 1993 Bosnian War. Following the bombing, Počitelj’s sixteenth-century master works of Islàmic art and architecture were destroyed and a large part of the town’s population was displaced.

Now the city is only a brief stop on the way from Mostar to Metković. Most if it is rebuild and you still can sense some of its history. Well worth to break your journey for a few hours here.

Peljesac

There is two ways to get onto the peninsula from the north. You can take the ferry from Ploce or you drive south – cross Bosnia and Herzegovina again and drive up north again. We opted for the latter – because I wanted to show Heike the war memorial and in high season you never know how full the ferry is.

The War Memorial on Peljesac

The War Memorial is near the village Gornje Pijavičino. It is dedicated to 395 fallen Yugoslav partisans and civilians killed in Italian and Ustasha concentration camps.

View from the War Memorial towards the South

Looks like they cut a line of trees to prevent the fire from spreading. Did not really help. Last time I was up here everything was green. Now with the Gray sky and black stumps it feels even more sad to stand up here.

Someone did add this the monument:Death to fascism! Down hitlerova NDH* Down Milosevic and Tudman! Down Nato vassalage! Cheers Partisan *The Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH)

That was not here the last time I did stop.

On the right site there is a big relief – lets take a look from left to right:

Someone did not like this one as well.

From fire and ash. From the blood and tears born was the new Yugoslavia Tito

Lots of bullet holes

Looks like a restaurant. Good idea since everybody does stop at the memorial the first time – but after that???

Orebić

Apartments Terezija

The wedding is in Trpanj on the other side of the peninsula but we where late with booking accommodation. Might be because of the wedding affordable accommodation was booked solid.

So we booked our room at Apartments Terezija in Orebić. It is only a few kilometres over the mountain and we stay only a few nights so that is OK.

The room was clean and we had a fridge and water cocker – great. Fly screen on all windows so you can leave them open all night long and enjoyed the breeze. Great place and only 1 minute or so to walk to the water!

Quite big room at the 1st floor with mountain view

At the beach in Orebić

The church on the way to the beach in Orebić

Beach in Orebić

The Marina

Palm tree

Ferry to KorÄula in Orebić

Orebić on the right KorÄula on the left

Do you want to stay up to date and not miss a post? Subscribe to the blog on the top right or all the way down on this page!